


bruise and leave behind

by ever_neutral



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-11
Updated: 2011-04-11
Packaged: 2017-10-17 22:30:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/181973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ever_neutral/pseuds/ever_neutral
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She’s coaxed (tricked, compelled) him across the line before. She can do it again.</p><p>[post-<i>By The Light of the Moon</i>]</p>
            </blockquote>





	bruise and leave behind

There are some moments at which the universe well and truly laughs in your face. Being forcibly trapped by (wonder of wonders) an _invisible line_ ; watching Stefan, remorseless and unsympathetic, leave with (one of those she’d count as) her mortal enemy – would be one of those priceless times.

_Congratulations to Stefan Salvatore, winner of this round._

She hates him then. Curses his damned existence, fantasises about gouging out his eyes, setting his glacial flesh aflame. _You’re the liar, Stefan. You’re the selfish one, the monster, you’re –_

_What I made you._

Her fire of fury melts and turns to warmth.

She tips her head back and laughs. It rings cold and hollow in the empty cave.

\---

Being trapped in the aforementioned cave gives one a lot of time for introspection, self-reflection, to mull over one's choices, blah blah blah.

She doesn’t have regrets. She’s done what she’s had to do. And the things she didn’t have to – well, she doesn’t regret them either.

Just another thing she has up on _him_. He who probably sits around bemoaning all his mistakes, each and every gorgeous one of them ( _of which she takes the prize_ ).

He hasn’t learned a thing. You can’t take back what you’ve done; you might as well own them.

You don’t make promises you can’t keep --

_“I will love you forever.”_

_\-- No, Stefan._ (Oh yes, she has a retort for _that_ one.) _**I** will love you forever. Have loved you forever, all the while you’ve been attempting to erase me with the poor man’s version of myself. _

It’s a contest. Sure, she may not always have played fairly. But at least she’s kept her _damn eyes on the goal_. Stefan can’t even decide which one’s the prize.

Though, for now – _she rolls her eyes heavily_ \-- it seems he’s made his choice. Picked his side, and it’s the losing team. Well played, Stefan. Brilliant strategy. What would he say – oh, that’s right, it’s the _right_ side. As though he expects it to count, too. She knows this game better than he does. In the grand scheme of things, you don’t make it to the finish line by staying within one’s neatly drawn boundaries.

So there you have it. Stefan on one side, Katherine on the other.

But let’s be practical here. _Hers is the side that survives._ Which certainly can’t be said for the rest of this godforsaken town once Klaus lays waste to it.

She’ll be the last one standing.

(As she always has been.)

And yet -- watching Stefan leave without so much as a backwards glance, it feels like she’s already lost.

Stefan, 1. Katherine, 0.

( _Not that we’re keeping score._ )

\---

Being stuck in a cave with nothing but her own company also necessarily entails a rerun of the greatest hits through her blood-starved mind. Like their first meeting; first look; first word; first dance. Fingers barely touching as the room slowly spins around them. Right, left, turn, don’t break eye contact.

Really, they never stopped.

_She takes the lead. His laugh is entirely pleasant, and entirely willing._

_“But is it not the gentleman’s role to lead?”_

(Like they’re really going to play it that way.)

_“No rules, Stefan. No rules.”_

Fast forward a hundred years or so, and nothing much has changed.

Well, one thing.

Stefan on one side, Katherine on the other. She’s still here. He is not.

And if that’s the way he wants it, so be it. Let him _roam_ , with the _herd_ , the lambs up for slaughter.

He’ll come back. Just like she did for him.

 _(Scene of the crime: Mystic Falls._  
Offender: Katherine Pierce.  
Victim: Nobody knows.)

Just like he came back before.

_(She hopes, she prays.)_

She’s coaxed ( _tricked, compelled_ ) him across the line before. She can do it again.

She grits her teeth, chants to herself.

_Love is patient. There is nothing it cannot face. There is no limit to its faith. There is no limit to its faith._


End file.
